Strip Clubs Pony Up For The DNC

Slim Baucom owns seven clubs in the Charlotte area. He’s been in the strip club business for almost 30 years.

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Slim Baucom owns seven clubs in the Charlotte area. He's been in the strip club business for almost 30 years. Photo: Tanner Latham It's not just city officials and business leaders rolling out the red carpet for the DNC. So is the adult entertainment industry. The same thing is happening in Tampa, the site of the Republican National Convention. As WFAE's Tanner Latham reports, strip club owners, managers, and dancers are all hoping to cash in on the excitement. David "Slim" Baucom has been in the strip club business in Charlotte for almost 30 years. He owns seven clubs, including a little placed called Twin Peeks up in the university area. "We've repainted the whole outside and the whole exterior," says Baucom. "We've added awning on the back for the entertainers going in and out. We've added a privacy fence, because they used to have to stand outside and smoke." The Gold Club sits across the street from a light rail stop off Old Pineville Road and Tyvola Road. They will waive cover charges for patrons with light rail passes. Photo: Tanner Latham By the time the DNC rolls around in September, Slim will have spent about $150,000 in renovations. New carpet, new paint, new surfaces for the parking lots. Slim's business has thrived during big sporting events. NASCAR race weeks are especially lucrative. But a political convention is unchartered territory. He's optimistic that the week of the DNC will be his most profitable of the year. "I hope I'm so busy making money, I don't know what's going on," he says. The closest strip club to the convention is Uptown Cabaret, located about a mile away. Managers there would not talk to WFAE, but a building permit shows it is in the process of a $350,000 addition. But this is a non-partisan story. Strip clubs in Tampa, Florida, are also gearing up for the Republican National Convention. "The biggest thing we did was build more of a true VIP area," says Isaac Zalta, the general manager of a Tampa club called Scores. Zalta wouldn't reveal specific numbers, but he says the club is quadrupling its advertising budget leading up to the convention. More billboards and more ads for radio, TV, and online. The inside changes include a new stage and lighting. "I think people are people, and when they're away from home, and they're part of something this big, and there are a lot of positive vibes out there, everybody's rooting for their candidate," says Zalta. "I think you get that mentality of guys wanting to go out-guys and girls-and wanting to have a really good time." He is also adding Kobe steaks to the menu just for the RNC. Okay, so which political convention is best for the adult entertainment industry? "Hands down, the Republicans have always been our best customers," says Angelina Spencer, the Executive Director of the Association of Club Executives. It is the national trade organization for adult nightclubs. "And they tend to be business-focused," she says. "That's really all I can say. We get clients from all walks of life, but for whatever reason I have heard club owners say, 'Boy, those Republicans really are great customers.'" She says it's not that there are more Republicans at the clubs. It's that they have more to spend. But Duke Dearing, a manager of two clubs near the 2008 DNC in Denver was happy with the profits he had four years ago. "During the course of the time the convention was there, their business was probably up in the neighborhood of 20 percent over what would be considered normal," says Dearing. Back in Charlotte, location might play a role. The Gold Club in South Charlotte sits about seven miles from the Time Warner Cable Arena. Jolie has been a stripper there for 10 years. "My big concern is that a good portion are going to stay just to downtown Charlotte," she says. The club is across the street from a light rail stop. Jolie says that during the DNC, they will waive cover charges if the patron has a light rail pass. She's hoping that promotion will entice more customers, because the recession has hit her pretty hard. She now works twice as many hours a week to make ends meet. "For what I would bring in in a yearly base, it's been cut in half, easy," she says. "So when you're used to living a certain way of living, your style of life, you've got to change it." Still, no matter how many Democrats make it to the Gold Club, Jolie will stick by an old rule she learned growing up. "Daddy always said, 'Don't talk politics with anybody."